Director Zach Snyder takes a huge step back with his male adolescent fantasy, Sucker Punch. Snyder's filmography had been impressive up to this point. Dawn of the Dead, 300, Watchmen, and the CGI - Legends of the Guardians, were visually stunning fx films with dark undertones and significant storylines. Sucker Punch is essentially a two hour music video with panty and stocking-clad girls in ludicrous video game environments. The lack of dialogue is laughable. He would have done better with no speaking parts at all. Then this film would have at least been memorable.

Emily Browning, and her underwear, star as the wrongly institutionalized Baby Doll. Set in a fifties era insane asylum, her cruel stepfather pays a wicked orderly (Oscar Isaac) to have her lobotomized. With the doctor's impending arrival in five days, Baby Doll creates two worlds in her imagination to cope with her surroundings. The first fantasy is a burlesque dance show, where the imprisoned girls perform and satisfy "high rollers". Then there is a fantasy within this world where Baby Doll and her titillating malefactors (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung) fight in various epic action scenes. Their final goal is to escape the cruel asylum and put on some pants.

If you saw the first and last ten minutes of Sucker Punch, then you've seen the plot of the film. Everything in between is pure eye and crotch candy. Seeing the gorgeous Emily Brown run around half naked in schoolgirl outfits firing maching guns satisfies one instinct, but as someone expecting to see an actual movie, it's sadly lacking. The internet and what passes for music television is chock full of this kind of sexually charged, violent imagery. Zach Synder's attempt at a hackneyed story is blinded by hormones here and entirely silly.

Snyder wasn't aiming for Shakespeare, obviously, the crux of this effort is a visual experience. This is meant for a certain audience, but he does attempt, key word being attempt, to have a deep philosophical outcome to Baby Doll's predicament. It's almost as if Snyder had attended the Michael Bay school of filmmaking and graduated the top of the class. You can't have anyone take you seriously if your entire film is boobies jiggling in slow motion.

I was massively disappointed by Sucker Punch. Maybe my expectations were too high, but this film is for thirteen year old boys and no one else. Snyder better raise his game for his next film. He's directing Superman: The Man of Steel for Warner Brothers. I will be livid if that film is remotely like this one.